Monday, February 21, 2011

Mike Krzyzewski, the longest tenured of ACC basketball coaches, sounded an alarm about the conference Sunday night after directing No. 5-ranked Duke to a 79-57 defeat of Georgia Tech.

There were thousands of empty seats for some sessions at the ACC tournament last year, and there may be more of the same next month in Greensboro. Teams from N.C.State, BostonCollege, Miami and some other ACC schools should be used to that, because they often play in front of arenas that aren’t close to being full.

After Duke played a Sunday game – and Krzyzewski despises Sunday games – he wondered aloud whether playing on Saturdays would be better for the ACC’s sagging attendance figures.

“You know, we have three straight games starting at 3:30 [Sunday] in the ACC,” Krzyzewski said. “Those would have been better on Saturday from 3:30 on. That’s when fans want to be out. Then we wonder why attendance is dipping. Have you noticed attendance has been dipping? Everywhere, not so much here, but we’ve got to figure that whole thing out.”

Krzyzewski indicated that decisions at the upcoming ACC spring meetings will be critical for the future of the conference. The ACC will debut a new TV contract with ESPN and partner Raycom in 2011-12, and Krzyzewski wants the structure for basketball studied carefully.

“I think this is a very important spring for our league to really concentrate on basketball and the future of basketball in our league, and just how all these things are positioned,” Krzyzewski said. “We’ve taken for granted the golden goose for a long time. You have to look at the old goose and see if it’s still golden, and if not, how to get it there, because this is still the best conference. It’s a classy, classy conference, and people love basketball in this conference. We just have to make sure it’s done properly.”

The coach’s comments on basketball in the ACC came after he was asked about scheduling. Krzyzewski said Sunday games are bad for everybody.

A prominent Sunday package televised nationally on Fox Sports Net gets ACC teams exposure from coast to coast. But Krzyzewski, playing Sundays creates problems. This week, the Blue Devils will play three games in seven days.

“It’s not a good thing,” Krzyzewski said. “We shouldn’t have ‘em. And it puts us in a position this week to play three games in six days without really a day off. But again, we’re not the only team that goes through it. It’s just our turn. But I’m not complaining. I would not want that for anybody in our league. I don’t think it helps our league.”

There's a lot of exasperation in the fan base of the 'not Duke, not UNC' schools. The product produced at these schools is largely substandard. Why should fans pay to see Coach K's team come in and clobber the home boys? The Big East has it going on, not the ACC.

Expansion has seriously diluted ACC basketball. Even though it was necessary for football, I wish it never happened. One solution would be to go back to round-robin. Another would be to have divisions, so that there be some consistency in who teams play year to year.

I agree, expansion has really hurt ACC Basketball. Not to be disrespectful but, Miami and Boston College basketball does not resonate with traditional ACC basketball fans. I say the voices of some of the more established coaches in the league (K, Roy Williams, Gary W, etc.) should be heard. Right now, the Big East is the most dominate basketball conference in the country with the Big 12 and Big 10 right behind.

Dilution of the college game is nationwide. If you've watched the game recently, you see a lot of poorly-played, low-fundamentals contests (less than 10 points in a half by one team in some DI games-come on). Still, there are some quality games intermixed in the slog. Sadly, poor fundos, selfish play, early NBA departures, etc, has reduced game quality across the board in recent years.

I agree that the league basketball is in trouble, but I really do not see what can be done about Sunday games. There is no way that the conference can have 6 games on Saturdays. This would limit the ability of the TV partners to show the games. Also, by limiting to just Saturdays, there would still be the problem that teams would have to play 3 games in six or seven days. It actually would make this problem even worse, because if teams had games on Thursday night, they have to turn around to play on the mandated Saturday. The league is garbage, but Sunday basketball really is the least of the worries...

"Teams from N.C. State, Boston College, Miami and some other ACC schools should be used to that, because they often play in front of arenas that aren’t close to being full."

Get the hell out of here. Sure, percentage wise it's somewhat similar, but let's stick BC and Miami and a 19k seat arena and see how that looks. State is far, far, far from a problem compared to other schools you could have mentioned instead. (GT? WF? C'mon.)

"Teams from N.C. State, Boston College, Miami and some other ACC schools should be used to that, because they often play in front of arenas that aren’t close to being full."

Get the hell out of here. Sure, percentage wise it's somewhat similar, but let's stick BC and Miami and a 19k seat arena and see how that looks. State is far, far, far from a problem compared to other schools you could have mentioned instead. (GT? WF? C'mon.)

Your attendance problems shouldn't even need to be ignored, State. You have two national championships and dozens and dozens of conference championship banners. Miami has all of one SWEET SIXTEEN appearance, and a single Big East regular season championship. You might not think so, but BC ain't all that much better off in terms of program tradition. They've never gotten past the Elite Eight, and they've got all of seven conference championships ever. Big arena or not, the state of NC State's basketball program is pretty sad. If they can fill up Carter-Finley for 7-9 wins a year, why not RBC?

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About this blog

David Scott has been with the Observer for 28 years and has written about ACC, SEC and other college sports in the Charlotte region. He covers Wake Forest, South Carolina and college soccer for the Observer and (Raleigh) News & Observer.

J.P. Giglio covers the ACC for the News & Observer, where he has worked since 1997, and the Observer.

Andrew Carter covers the North Carolina Tar Heels for the Observer and News & Observer.

Laura Keeley covers the Duke Blue Devils for the Observer and News & Observer. Follow her on Twitter.

Chip Alexander covers the Carolina Hurricanes and college football for the News & Observer, where he has worked since 1979, and the Observer.

Luke DeCock has worked for The News & Observer since 2000. He covered the Carolina Hurricanes and the NHL before becoming a sports columnist for the Observer and News & Observer in August 2008.

Tim Crothers is an author and former senior writer at Sports Illustrated who is joining the sports staff to write a regular column during the rest of the college basketball season.